I found this small painting many years ago at a local auction, it was a side profile of a woman painted on a cedar panel signed in pencil on the lower right with a monogram and dated 1922. I had no idea of who the artist was, but written in pencil on the back was "Portrait of Mrs. Affleck, Duncan , B.C." along with what looked like the artist's name but it was partly obscured. I turned to Gary Sim's incredible database British Columbia Artists and took what I could discern from the signature and through a process of elimination was able to narrow it down to Arthur Burchett which I later corroborated with further research online. Through this additional research I was able to discover a number of other examples of his work and extensive biography and a link to his great granddaughter, Lisa Hemeon who also an artist. His had a fascinating life and it really shows how small the world once was and how even then, artists living in the back woods of the British Empire were connected and relevant to the greater art world. I hope you enjoy this new discovery as much as I do and I hope you might have even more information and images we can add to his profile.
- Paul Crawford
Click here to read Arthur Burchett's biography and view more of his work.
